


Things Anti-Monster Politicians Could Do

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Analysis, Angst, Bigotry & Prejudice, Gen, Human/Monster Society, Meta, Non-Graphic Violence, Nonfiction, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Prejudice Against Monsters (Undertale), Undertale Monsters on the Surface, fanfic fodder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: Details the possible tactics of anti-monster politicians in Post-Pacifist works, and the consequences of those actions. (Sorted into Teen for the dark content in the Severe and Extremely Angsty sections.)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. Mild Tactics

# Things Anti-Monster Politicians Could Do (Mild)

_([Mild](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983464116/tumblr_I14oF1zfvkqiZckg2)) → ([Moderate](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983657966/tumblr_9jXJ7HGjzROsZUEPW)) → ([Severe](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983742681/tumblr_8ItS4Ps0Xc7N4TTNd))→ ([Extremely Angsty](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983958131/tumblr_KhAKQnlygKeoKKniU))_

_Note: This series assumes Mt. Ebott is in the U.S., based on Vegetoid’s description: “Not monitored by the USDA”. This presumably stands for the United States Department of Agriculture. However, most of the article would apply if Mt. Ebott were in other countries, too._

* * *

_The anti-monster politician would ignore or dismiss monsters’ specific bodily or cultural needs, or make it inconvenient for them to fulfill particular needs. Loopholes, alternatives and workarounds to the policies are obvious, but discouraged or inconvenient._

## Tactic 1: Gyftmas is Not Valid

Failing to recognize Gyftmas as a holiday, or forcing monsters to celebrate it on Christmas, would be the easiest, mildest form of anti-monster discrimination. It’s very mild because it’s unclear if Gyftmas is a culture-wide holiday or a local tradition (a la Mardi Gras for the U.S. state of Louisiana), and it actually takes place during summer. Short of summer school, monster students naturally wouldn’t have go to school on that day. It also wouldn’t face the same holiday override as, for example, Christmas does for Hanukkah or Kwanza.

–

## Tactic 2: No Magic Lessons

On a slightly stronger note, anti-monster politicians (AMPs) could, rather than creating species-segregated schools, strategically adjust school rules and requirements.

AMPs (school superintendents, principals) could ban bullet patterns inside a school. In principle, this makes sense: humans could get hurt, and for particularly crowded schools, a lot of humans could get hurt at once. The AMPs could (at risk to sounding reasonable) ban bullet patterns on school grounds, so monsters can’t even do it at recess or shortly after being released from school.

School superintendents could make curriculum options that conspicuously omit magic-expression, even as an extracurricular. One plausible-sounding excuse for why they wouldn’t teach magic is due to a school being majority-human (but still close to Mt. Ebott), and humans being unable to use magic or find it as appealing or useful as monsters.

Even without specific regulations, AMPs could influence hiring decisions for human-only/human-dominant schools so they just happen to never hire magic-expression teachers, or block attempts to teach magic-expression because “it’s not part of the curriculum”. They could even block merging magic-expression lessons into art or communication classes. Alternatively, AMPs could mandate only monster-specific/monster-dominant schools need to teach magic expression, or specifically block all but monster schools from teaching it.

In total, these regulations wouldn’t endanger monsters, but only give them a sub-par species-specific education if they attend human-dominant schools. They could find workarounds, such as tutors, separate schools or parents teaching them, but it would be inconvenient.

–

## Tactic 3: No Monster Food in Cafeterias

AMPs could suggest “accommodating monsters with magic food” (e.g, cafes, school cafeterias) is financially onerous for businesses, making monster food availability lower. They could also disguise not supplying monster food as personally not liking the cuisine or considering it unappealing to kids. After all, Chinese food is just more of a crowd-pleaser than, say, Lebanese food. Still, this would be absurd since monster food largely mimics common American foods.

Not supplying monster food would be extra inconvenient in cafeterias, because children have less of a choice in what schools or businesses they attend or work for than what cafes they visit. Even without official policies or justifications, AMPs could simply not supply any monster food, ever, in cafeterias. It would be very suspect because some schools do import food outside typical catering, and monster food would likely be healthier, tastier, or cheaper than human food. This is especially true when serving normal food a small percentage of humans are allergic to, but monster food is “made of magic” and might not contain allergens at all.

Since monsters apparently need to defecate if they eat physical food, AMPs could make this worse by forbidding them from entering student/employee bathrooms. Some possible excuses are: “so many unsupervised students/employees in one place could kill them”, or “we aren’t sure if our toilets can handle your waste”, or “monsters defecating is gross”, or “since you’re an “it” or “they”, you can’t go to the girls’ bathrooms or boys’ bathrooms) But, AMPs could suspiciously never supply a single toilet for monsters in the whole building to address the “waste” concerns, despite the existence of handicapped bathrooms/specific stalls that also serve a tiny minority. AMPs could also discourage, if not outright forbid, them from using the single-stall teachers’ bathrooms as a workaround.

Now, to make this even worse, AMPs could suggest, without any basis, that monster food is nutritionally inferior or reacts poorly with the human body. They could then use that to discredit monster-run food shops. (a la monosodium glutamate and anti-Chinese xenophobia) They could even fabricate or fudge the results for a study on monster food’s effect on humans, then use the fake results to support banning monster food from restaurants. While monsters can still eat physical food, shifting their diet to have drastically more physical food at once will surely lead to mass digestive troubles and possibly nutritional problems. (It would also sabotage humans, since monster food could be really handy in some situations.)

–

## Tactic 4: No Body Accommodations

Taller monsters, such as Asgore, need bigger models of cars to safely fit in cars and/or comfortably drive. Smaller cars are generally more fuel-efficient, and harm pedestrians less in case of a collision. So, AMPs could make suspiciously-timed subsidies for smaller cars, outright ban big cars from cities or parking garages, or have buyback programs for bigger (and potentially monster-suitable) cars.

The AMPs could also suggest physical accommodations of any sort (e.g., entry ramps for legless monsters) would be expensive and useless. However, his particular tactic would probably cause humans with impaired mobility to team up with monsters, since they also need or greatly benefit from similar ramps. Indeed, this is classified as “mild” partly because the tactic could anger or greatly inconvenience humans, and so nudge them into making political alliances with monsters.

* * *

## Workarounds

### Workarounds for No Magic Lessons

 **Workaround 1.** Gerson is hired to teach (human) history. AMPs figure he’s just teaching (human) history, and on the face of it he’d be a good history teacher. But Gerson just happens to make asides on monster history when it parallels human issues, and just happens to give demonstrations of bullet patterns in monster history, or re-creates artistic patterns throughout human history using his own bullets.

 **Workaround 2.** A monster P.E. teacher (e.g., Undyne) notices the rule says “students can’t use bullet patterns inside school/on school grounds”. The monster demonstrates bullet patterns for the students to actually practice later. Better yet, the monster P.E. teacher takes one step outside the school’s legal property (e.g., a surrounding field, in the parking lot, on the roof), shows off bullet patterns, and has students take turns stepping just outside official school property to demonstrate. The monster teaches them how to express bullet patterns in an athletic way to justify it being part of athletic curriculum.  
Or, the monster realizes it’s still legal for P.E. teachers to play dodgeball with students (which can hurt), and so does “magic ball” instead, controlling bullet damage so it does exactly as much damage as getting hit by a dodgeball. (The monster P.E. teacher could probably say, “Frisk survived because they were so good at dodging! Knowing how to dodge magic attacks will keep humans safe in human-monster conflict!”)

 **Workaround 3.** One reason/excuse for not teaching magic at a majority human school is the fact humans can’t use magic, and it not being important in human society. However, a function on Frisk’s monster-made cell phone changed their SOUL to Yellow mode, allowing them to emit bullets like a monster. (if in a very simplified fashion) Monsters providing SOUL mode technology or magical objects that emit bullets means humans wouldn’t feel left out in magic expression classes. Furthermore, of course human children would want to learn how to use magic in some way, even if it took years of practice.  
If humans with yellow SOULs can naturally emit bullets, that would cause an even greater faux pas to AMPs. People would probably argue they’d want to cultivate their abilities, and not providing magic lessons even as an extracurricular is discriminatory to Yellow SOULs.

 **Workaround 4.** Humans can, in fact, use magic after monsters return to the Surface, and monsters teach them how to use magic.[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983464116/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do-mild#fn:1) The fun and utility of humans knowing how to use magic encourages human-monster integration. While Tactic 2 suggests magic classes are of little to no use in purely human/human-dominant schools, the school with one or multiple magic classes in GlitchTale seems to be human-dominant.

–

### Workarounds for No Monster Food at Cafeterias

 **Workaround 1:** Monster students just bring bagged lunches. Alternatively, for teenagers allowed to go off-grounds for lunch, there could be a monster restaurant for cheap that’s very close to the school.

 **Workaround 2:** Internet personalities who specialize in recording eating food or visiting restaurants make a point of eating monster food. They could even repeatedly swear or say really funny things to make the videos super-popular.

 **Workaround 3:** Monster food-engineers supply magic-food equivalents to common allergen-containing foods, like oysters or peanut butter, allowing allergic people to taste what they’ve been missing out on and feel “normal”. The video would be highly “wholesome” and saccharine in a way that would make it super-popular, like unexpected puppies.

 **Workaround 4:** An actual Chinese restaurateur makes a satirical video comparing monster food xenophobia to historic Chinese-food xenophobia.

 **Workaround 5:** The fact monster food converts to energy (presumably upon being swallowed) heals HP (presumably minor injuries, in non-video-game terms), and probably doesn’t contribute to weight gain [2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983464116/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do-mild#fn:3) means it would be popular among humans, who might pack some monster food in their school lunches. Monster food’s popularity and convenience among humans would just highlight AMPs’ absurd monster-food restriction.

* * *

Series made with the help of [Batter-Sempai](https://batter-sempai.tumblr.com/), [CinnamonAzzy](https://cinnamonazzy.tumblr.com/) and [Ihasafandom](https://ihasafandom.tumblr.com/).

* * *

**Related Works**

[The Perils of Being Literally Not Human](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189728219689/the-perils-of-being-literally-not-human-image-by) (specifically about how monsters' nonhuman status and bodies cause problems)  
[Chara’s Stomach Rumbles](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/180084337318/charas-stomach-rumbles) (a possible side effect of eating only monster food)  
[The Perils of an All-Monster Food Diet](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/182791776881/the-perils-of-an-all-monster-food-diet) (More detail on problems with eating entirely monster food. Still doesn’t justify banning monster food from cafeterias, however)  
[Undertale Character Heights](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/tagged/Undertale-Character-Heights/chrono/) (listed chronologically. Part 2 to 4 covers how human-designed objects and buildings are ill-suited for extra-wide or tall monsters)

* * *

  1. The fan works [GlitchTale](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPLyqyE8FJHoUhqDX0vfdd8sSMPJuPEnAW8&t=ZGM2ZGRhOTdmNWUxNWE2NGZhYjMxZDRjZDZkZjhiZDYyZGFhM2M5OSxyVzFBZE11dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189983464116%2Fthings-anti-monster-politicians-could-do-mild&m=1) (Season 2) and [Endertale](https://xxtc-96xx.tumblr.com/tagged/undertale-comic/chrono/) feature this. In GlitchTale, humans regain use of magic very quickly, suggesting they’ve kept theoretical knowledge on it, even if they couldn’t actually use it. In Endertale, Frisk learns magic over three years. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983464116/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do-mild#fnref:1)

  2. In the fanfiction Long Road (specifically [Chapter 4](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6499498%2Fchapters%2F15595324&t=MzEwMzUwNGZjYTQ1NzZiMzE0YTY4MjMwMDk5MGI0MjFhNWY4YWI1ZSxyVzFBZE11dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189983464116%2Fthings-anti-monster-politicians-could-do-mild&m=1)), monster food is popular among humans for similar reasons. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983464116/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do-mild#fnref:3)




**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/). Feel free to comment on this article there or here.


	2. Moderate Tactics

# Things Anti-Monster Politicians Could Do (Moderate)

_([Mild](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983464116/tumblr_I14oF1zfvkqiZckg2)) → ([Moderate](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983657966/tumblr_9jXJ7HGjzROsZUEPW)) → ([Severe](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983742681/tumblr_8ItS4Ps0Xc7N4TTNd))→ ([Extremely Angsty](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/private/189983958131/tumblr_KhAKQnlygKeoKKniU))_

_The anti-monster politician would prevent or greatly hinder monsters from using certain utilities, frequenting certain businesses, or going to certain places, for reasons that are somewhat justified or are, on paper at least, defensible for non-monster-related reasons. Loopholes, alternatives and workarounds are some combination of time-consuming, research-intensive, or somewhat more expensive._

# Tactics

### Tactic 1. Coordinated Non-Accommodation

The mild section included the tactic of suspiciously-timed incentives for smaller cars, which restricted car use for larger monsters, and the argument that physical accommodations for monsters was financially burdensome to small businesses.

To make this worse, AMPs could hinder monsters in even customizing vehicles themselves. AMPs could make severe restrictions on which cars can be modified to have more interior space and how they can be modified. (e.g., custom vans with more headroom) They could mandate all modified vans get special authorization papers, and just happen to only give them to human car owners. AMPs could also create substantial fines for “violations” of the rule. As a political smokescreen, AMPs could say it’s for the “safety” of wheelchair users, who tend to use extra-big, modified cars anyway.

The anti-monster politicians could also deliberately build or remodel bridges or highways to be shorter than usual, supposedly by accident or supposedly to discourage big, smoke-belching trucks from getting close to city centers. If they’re really petty, they could make a bunch of sloppily-made bridges over roads that are doomed to get very damaged if hit by a truck, and they could just hope (or falsely claim) a monster was driving it. Making travel under bridges and highways a tighter squeeze could discourage monsters from modifying trucks or semi-trailers for personal transport.

### Tactic 2. No Bullets in Public Places

Banning magic bullets at schools (see Part 1, Mild) and daycares is somewhat justified, since those areas have high concentrations of human children (with presumably low HP), and monster children plausibly have less control or finesse with their bullet emissions. However, taking this further, AMPs could ensure monsters don’t use bullet patterns at schools or daycares by mandating monsters wear magic-suppressing technology (e.g., collars)[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983657966/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fn:1) while attending human dominant (or, worse, human-inclusive) schools and daycares. AMPs could take this further by requiring monster children use magic suppressants in other areas where they are likely to encounter human children, such as malls, movie theaters, and libraries.

Of course, AMPs would be sabotaging human-monster integration this way. Banning bullet patterns in schools, banning the teaching of magic in human-dominant/inclusive schools, and mandating magic-suppressors would make it harder for monster children to learn how to use their magic around humans. A weak kid with no magic suppressant wouldn’t inflict two points of damage on a human, regret it, and learn how to control damage better. Rather, a much stronger teenage monster with no magic suppressant might inflict high damage on (or even kill) a human. AMPs need only sit back and wait a few years (depending on monster ageing rates) for this “accident” to happen, and then they would exploit it to justify greater magic restriction. (or worse)

All this assumes it is even possible for monsters to wear magic-suppressing collars without instantly dying. Since they are made of magic, the technology would surely cause problems in their development and physical health. It is also very likely to cause psychological problems, either from suppressing an instinctive behavior or cherished custom, or from interfering with the body’s physiology too much. The psychological problems might even make them a little psychologically unstable or over-eager to use bullets, making them slightly dangerous to humans.[2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983657966/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fn:2) These widespread anti-magic requirements would also nudge monsters to self-segregation more than the milder tactics of not providing magic lessons in human-dominant schools or restricting the supply of magic food in school or company cafeterias.

### Tactic 3: Breed Bans

Anti-monster politicians could ban (rather than simply discourage) certain “breeds” of monsters from going to certain places, presumably because of unavoidable dangers. Banning fire monsters from pools or water parks is the most obvious and defensible, although (depending on voters’ knowledge of dog behavior) banning skeletons from dog parks might seem reasonable. Anti-monster politicians might also find a way of banning “small critter” monsters (e.g., Froggits) from dog parks, to prevent them from being attacked by a pack of large dogs. This is not very bad, in itself. It is classified as “moderate” because it sets a precedent for banning monsters entirely from certain locations, and AMPs could start with reasonable bans only to go on to less sensible ones.

### Tactic 4: Fragility

In some fan works monsters try to keep their weakness to humans’ cruel intents a secret, lest humans exploit it. Still, it would inevitably leak out sometime. The AMPs could note, or heavily imply, monsters’ fragility when attacked by humans. Similarly to Tactic 3, they might hinder or ban access to places where humans are more likely to be violent (bars, sports stadiums) and suggest putting monsters in “reservations” to keep them safe from humans.[3](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983657966/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fn:3) Seemingly altruistic motives would be less likely to trip alarms and harder to argue against.

However, putting monsters in faraway reservations would put them out of sight, and out of mind. Though it would be impossible to completely isolate monsters from humans in an Internet era, humans would no longer have everyday encounters with monsters, and it wouldn’t be as easy for humans to witness anti-monster tactics.

* * *

# Workarounds

### Coordinated Non-Accommodation Workarounds

 **Workaround 1:** If the rule is about elevating the roof, Toriel-sized monsters (minimum height: 7 feet, 2 inches) could be fairly comfortable by lowering the seats, swapping them out, or even modifying the floor of the car to be a little lower.

 **Workaround 2:** Large monsters could also use public buses (unless they’re also adjusted to be extra-short), or get rides from wheelchair-compatible taxicabs or private driving services. Or, they could have someone else drive, and hunch or lay down in the back seats.

 **Workarounds 3:** Flying cars/taxis to dodge all those goshdarn prejudice bridges. Or, when blue magic is interpreted as applying to physical objects and bodies, and not just things with SOULs, (e.g., in The Anomaly) monsters could use blue magic on their cars and fly over obstacles.

### Workaround to No Bullets in Public Places

One reason the tactic is considered “moderate” is because there are many workarounds, which vary depending on how the law works.

 **Workaround 1:** If implemented by individual businesses, rather than on a regional or city-wide level, monsters can simply go to alternative places.

 **Workaround 2:** If the law is specifically “monster children must wear magic suppressants in areas where human children are likely to frequent”, and applies to all businesses, individual business-owners could make their own workarounds. They could temporarily ban human children for “monster children-friendly” hours or days at businesses, allowing monster children to use the same facilities. (if not at the same time)

 **Workaround 3:** Or, since monsters might age at different rates than humans, or have their ages not as recognizable to humans, monsters could easily say, “By the standards of my breed, my offspring counts as a teenager.” Indeed, even other monsters might find it hard to distinguish someone’s age on sight: the fact that striped shirts evidently equal “kid” suggests monsters use fashion to distinguish children from naturally short monsters.

 **Workaround 4:** If the law’s reasoning is that monster children cannot control bullet emissions well enough to avoid hurting humans, monster children could get magic licenses (a la drivers’ licenses) that prove they have sufficient control and thus bypass anti-magic policies. (To make this extra easy, people could set up magic-control businesses very close to popular theaters, potentially allowing last-minute authorization a few hours before a movie premiere)

### Fragility Workarounds

 **Workaround 1:** Monsters who regularly interact with large numbers of humans could wear bulletproof vests, which may give them some protection.

 **Workaround 2:** If monsters’ fragility comes from their magical bodies and how their magical bodies are attuned to their SOULs, increasing the physical matter levels of their bodies (such as through eating physical food) may give some resistance to hateful intent. (Although eating exclusively physical food might cause long-term problems.)

* * *

* * *

  1. Idea of magic-suppressing collars comes from [Insanelyadd](https://insanelyadd.tumblr.com/)’s Ambassador Papyrus comics.  
[↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983657966/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fnref:1)

  2. Note: In [Underlie](https://holloweentwinkie.tumblr.com/tagged/underlie-comic/chrono), former royal scientist W.D. Gaster is depicted as having a sort of auto-immune condition in his youth. His condition attacks him whenever he uses magic, requiring he take magic-suppressing pills with uncomfortable side effects. Once able to use his long-suppressed magic, he is exaggeratedly pleased.  
[↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983657966/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fnref:2)

  3. A policy suggested by the anti-monster politician Senator Crier in the fanfiction [Undertale: Long Road](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6499498%2Fchapters%2F14877961&t=MWQwNDY2ZmJhZjc5M2JkMWFhMWM2ZmNjNmI1Yzc2YTE0N2MxNzk2YixyNkZGY2RlWA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189983657966%2Fthings-anti-monster-politicians-could-do&m=1). [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983657966/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fnref:3)





	3. Severe Tactics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From Severe and onward, the anti-monster politician tactics become depressing to dystopian. Workarounds still exist, but some people may be saddened reading Part 3 and 4.

# Things Anti-Monster Politicians Could Do (Severe)

_The anti-monster politician would make policies based on obvious and indefensible prejudice. The policies would be part of concerted, serious restrictions on monsters interacting with humans and being full participants in human society, and cause paranoia._

* * *

# Tactics

The easiest way to present all monsters as dangerous, not just the big or scary-looking ones (e.g., Asgore, the demon guy NPC), would be to emphasize their magical bullets. Anti-monster politicians (AMPs) could argue that monsters are instinctively driven to shoot magic bullets at things (a half-truth, at best), but completely omit that’s it a form of self-expression that can express multiple emotions. Instead, they could argue it always comes from negative emotions, to suggest monsters are often emotionally volatile. They could also argue monsters’ bullet emission is purposeless and dangerous and proof of an aggressive nature.

Based on these untruths, AMPs could justify only letting monsters live in certain neighborhoods, which would limit human-monster integration and would make future harassment, intimidation, or sporadic murder sprees more convenient for anti-monster humans.

AMPs could also mandate monsters wear magic-suppressing devices when going to anti-magic buildings (which are suspiciously common), going outside monster-dominant enclaves in townships or cities, going into certain cities or counties, or just going out in public at all. More severely, once many humans are convinced monsters are dangerous to them, AMPs could pass laws that mandate monsters use magic-suppressing devices at all times. (Again, assuming they are not instantly lethal) They could make these devices very hard to remove, thus making it difficult to tinker with them. Similarly, anti-monster humans (e.g, employers) could mandate monsters take magic-suppressant pills. (It would make it easier to hide the evidence for monster oppression.)

Anti-magic propaganda would justify banning them from airplanes, interstate/inter-nation trains, or even local-route buses. An outright ban on all monsters on buses would have a more severe overall effect than making extra-tall monsters uncomfortable, shaming them for awkwardly fitting, or ensuring they cannot fit at all. Building on the “Coordinated Non-Accommodation” tactic in the Moderate section, AMPs could delay distribution of local big cars or the imports of foreign-made big cars. Anti-monster politicians could also block home-made customizations of cars entirely, drastically reducing the amount of cars suitable for monsters outside human proportions. The tactic would also alienate many humans who work on “project cars” at home, but the voting base would likely be too small to oppose the AMPs by themselves.

# Workarounds

At this point, monsters are so suppressed, having large or influential groups of human allies becomes more important.

 **Workaround 1** : Pro-monster humans specifically live in monster-dominant neighborhoods to act as witnesses, defend their neighbors, give practical help (e.g., transport) to monsters, or just cause logistical complications for murderous humans who presumably don’t want to kill other humans.

 **Workaround(s) 2:** Humans or monsters make custom cars in somewhat private businesses, rather than at home. If monsters are not allowed to own custom cars, the business could technically be a car rental service, for low-cost, long-term rent.  
Or, someone could make an on-demand transportation service (“Band Practice Taxis”) with extra-roomy vehicles, ostensibly to fit in big, oddly-shaped objects, but actually intended for big monsters.  
If monsters cannot buy nor specify custom cars, humans with very wide or tall bodies (proxies for monsters) could “buy” cars by proxy and loan them out or let monsters “borrow” them.  
Monsters could also commission cars made in foreign countries with looser anti-monster rules, and then import them. (It would be nearly impossible to completely block monsters from private cars without very obvious and unfeasible discrimination laws, but the tactics would still isolate monsters and make them second-class citizens in sprawling settlements.)

 **Workaround 3:** If the law specifies monsters must wear magic-suppressing devices at all times, monsters can wear them…but have them turned _off_. (Especially easy if it doesn’t have an obvious activity light.) Alternatively, if regulations don’t specify a particular strength of magic suppression, merely that magic must be suppressed, monsters may find a software or hardware workaround to put suppression on its lowest setting.


	4. Extremely Angsty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Warning: the following options are very dark and dystopian, and some are close to real-life horrors.**

_The anti-monster politician would make coordinated attempts to intimidate, harass, trap, kill, or entirely exterminate monsters. Some options add so much angst the tone is unrecognizable as something Undertale-derived. Not recommended for fan works unless Frisk is very competent at going back in time, ruining anti-monster humans’ plans, and giving them their comeuppance._

This options cannot plausibly happen shortly after monsters leave Mt. Ebott. More likely, these options are the culmination of years of anti-monster propaganda establishing monsters as dangerous to humans or, worse, as irrevocably aggressive or uncontrollable.

## Tactics

### Tactic 1. Trap Towns

The easiest, most feasible Extremely Angsty option for anti-monster politicians is clandestinely designing certain towns as “trap towns” for monsters, similarly to the terrifying sundown towns of the U.S. in the 1960s.[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983958131/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fn:1) To separate them from human witnesses/defenders, the trap towns could be put in the middle of nowhere, and travelling monsters could be directed there through mis-printed maps, faulty GPS, sadistic gas station employees, or just unexpected blockades. Once there, official or de facto policies could specify monsters must be “repelled by all means necessary”. (and, of course, some would die, that being the law’s true purpose)

Anti-monster politicians could also establish a continuous set of states or provinces where monsters are entirely banned, isolating monsters within certain states through this new interstate/inter-province “Barrier”. However, a clandestine trap town system would be technically and politically easier to set up: they could get most of the monster-killing benefits by simply putting the trap towns on state borders.

### Tactic 2. Manufactured Disasters

If magic-suppressing devices regulate magic rather than only hinder it, it might be possible to make them amplify magic, or even involuntarily summon a monster’s magic. Since the monsters are used to low levels or are out of practice, this could easily manufacture disasters, justifying even worse measures. Most plausibly, they could simply make the collars stop suppressing magic when the monsters are used to the effect. Thus, a small, harmless bullet display made under magic suppression could become suddenly much more powerful, and likely to hurt a human.

Taking this to the extreme, AMPs could classify all monsters as living weapons, based on their magical ability and alleged aggressive behavior.

### Tactic 3. Painful Magic Modification

For even greater angst, rather than making it more difficult to emit bullets, the collars could outright shock monsters or briefly destabilize their bodies if they tried to use magic. If using magic is an instinctive activity or important for proper psychological development, instantly punishing them for using magic would raise them to be a bunch of wrecks.

Anti-monster politicians could, beyond amplifying or suppressing magic, deliberately change the devices’ settings remotely to kill all the monsters at once. Alternatively, they could leave easily exploited security problems in the Internet-connected bands so independent anti-monster hackers can kill monsters without politicians being to blame. Or, AMPs could design the hardware so it will predictably “malfunction” after a certain span of time, or make the software “glitch out” when responding to a new kind of signal getting installed in the area for non-suspicious reasons. Of course, if they were especially clever evil people, they could use an unpredictable combination of all the factors, so no one can figure out what’s causing it until it’s too late.

### Tactic 4. Separation

Anti-monster politicians could separate monsters from humans entirely, supposedly for their own safety or for humans’ safety, and put them on faraway “reservations”. (If they’re allowed to stop using magic suppressors on the “reservations”, that would make it extra appealing.) The AMPs could even outright hire assassins to kill a few monsters first, making the reservations look safer.[2](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983958131/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fn:2) For maximum angst, AMPs could ensure the monsters are all slaughtered while they are far away from witnesses or the media.

In a ridiculously angsty setting, anti-monster humans would surely be willing to kill any humans who allied themselves with monsters, or just happened to be in the way during a monster-killing spree.[3](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983958131/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fn:3) They might even seal human allies underground, too. (But not if they know the power of a human-monster fusion)

The worst variant is sealing them Mt. Ebott again, but modifying the new barrier so humans can still get in. Anti-monster politicians could pluck monsters out for use in military weapons (e.g., extracting energy from monster SOULs to make weapons). For really, really angsty options (use sparingly even in high-angst works) they could occasionally brand them as “criminals” for breaking minor and arbitrary laws and invite people at high cost to execute them, a la “canned shoots” for wild animals.

## Workarounds

### Trap Town Workarounds

 **Workaround 1:** Using blockades to redirect monsters would, obviously, affect human transit too, possibly angering humans who live close to the trap towns. Furthermore, unless there’s a very plausible reason for the blockades (e.g., earthquake damage to the road ahead) a road maintenance crew would figure out the ploy within a few weeks and remove the blockade.

 **Workaround 2:** If there is only a road block, the monsters could simply go off-road (in sufficiently flat terrain) or magically make their vehicles fly to avoid unsuitable terrain and also the trap towns.

 **Workaround 3:** Alternatively, if the anti-monster humans running the trap towns would prefer not to kill other humans, one monster on a cross-country trip could have multiple human passengers and a specific travelling plan. Short of killing the human passengers, there would be witnesses, and therefore big legal repercussions for killing the monsters in the trap towns.

### Manufactured Disaster Workarounds

 **Workaround 1** : Technologically-inclined monsters notice the collars can be hacked remotely, and either fix it themselves or force humans to fix it for selfishly-appealing reasons. (e.g., “What if people hacked the collars to suddenly turn them off? Humans could get hurt from magic bullets!” “Uh, thanks, definitely wouldn’t want that to happen.”)

 **Workaround 2** : Monsters make magic-suppressing devices themselves/a quietly pro-monster human does, secretly advised by a monster. If not all manufacturers of magic-suppressing devices are chummy with AMPs, and most monsters use devices the AMPs don’t control, it would be impossible for the AMPs to kill many monsters in an instant.

### Painful Magic Modifications

 **Workaround 1** : Monsters “upgrade” the device software en masse….just to give it stronger security protocols and failsafes so suppression won’t become lethal. (If the bands can indeed be hacked through the Internet, they could probably manage security downloads, too.) Anti-monster humans would have a hard time arguing about that, authorized or not.

 **Workaround 2:** Wealthy pro-monster humans dedicate some land to a particularly luxurious reservation, with as few anti-monster restrictions as they can get away with.

 **Workaround 3:** Monsters upload professionally-edited videos of very elaborate magic displays from one of the few places where it’s legal to use magic. The videos became very popular; humans are interested in visiting reservations (even if it’s supposedly dangerous or out-of-the-way) specifically to see the magic shows.

 **Workaround 4:** A travelling troupe of monster performers/cheap movie special-effects providers is allowed to have their collars off when practicing or performing magic bullet shows. They show off their great levels of control.

### Tactic 4. Separation

 **Workaround 1:** A human interested in a “canned shoot” for a monster, or studying monster SOULs as energy sources, accidentally absorbs a monster SOUL. The monster partially controls their body and tries to use them as a way to free the other monsters. Alternatively, the human becomes sympathetic to the monster and monsters’ plight after living with their very SOUL inside them.

 **Workaround 2:** A monster absorbs a human SOUL, but pretends the human SOUL has gained control over the body because the monster was weak-willed. The monster (pretending to be a human) suggests it’s not so bad to have a monster body, or the power of its (clearly superior) human SOUL within a monster body allows it to intimidate the monster population into submission. (Making it seem less sensible to pluck out and execute “criminals”)

### General Workarounds

 **Workarounds 1:** Unpredictable malfunctions (localized gas leaks, fires, viruses, software malfunctions, Internet outages, not having any pens in the whole building to sign a law) keep happening right before anti-monster politicians make horrific laws. (It’s all Frisk’s doing.)

 **Workarounds 2:** All anti-monster politicians live in fear of getting food poisoning right before important meetings where something is signed into law. (And Frisk learns both stealth and the art of poison.)

* * *

* * *

* * *

  1. Even more terrifyingly…some still exist.  
[↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983958131/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fnref:1)

  2. In [Undertale: Long Road](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6499498%2Fchapters%2F14877961&t=ODdjMzE5NjJiNWQ4ZjQyZDgyNWExYjIxZjkwNWNkODU0YTIwMDY1NiwzY2xHWk9yWg%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189983958131%2Fthings-anti-monster-politicians-could-do&m=1), a senator named Senator Crier recommends “reservations” for monsters, supposedly for their own safety because they are so fragile around humans. At the same time, three modern-day wizards are using an ancient artifact to extract monster SOULs, which kills monsters. The string of murders scares monsters, and probably motivates them to send their kids to Asgore’s summer camp at the last minute.  
[↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983958131/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fnref:2)

  3. In a frightening [GlitchTale prequel video](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DPRgMbhVQB4o&t=ZDVmZGY0NTI3NmJlOTBkZGExYzg4NDI4MTgwYWU0YTk2ZmM2Y2M4ZCwzY2xHWk9yWg%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189983958131%2Fthings-anti-monster-politicians-could-do&m=1), set in the first war between humans and monsters, a masked magic-user sealed a town in a magical dome and filled the dome with (presumably poisonous) gas, killing both human and monster residents. In [GlitchTale](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPLyqyE8FJHoUhqDX0vfdd8sSMPJuPEnAW8&t=YmMzZjIxYjBjYTEzOWNmODI1MmMxMWNiNDBhNGNjZTZmOThkNTM1ZiwzY2xHWk9yWg%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F189983958131%2Fthings-anti-monster-politicians-could-do&m=1) itself, the supposedly pro-human, anti-monster Betty is quite willing to kill hundreds of humans to gain the power necessary to exterminate monsters. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/189983958131/things-anti-monster-politicians-could-do#fnref:3)




**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/). Feel free to comment on this article there or here.


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